Best film Oscar for 'Argo' upsets Iran

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Last Updated: Tue, Feb 26, 2013 04:58 hrs

The best film Oscar for the CIA thriller Argo has riled Iran, which says the award has unveiled the "bare politicisation in Hollywood".

"In the era that politicization in Hollywood was very strong, and every awards and festivals in Hollywood had paid much attention to the anti-Iranian movie Argo, the 85th Academy Awards ceremony, unveiled the bare politicization in Hollywood," said mehrnews.com.

US First Lady Michelle Obama introduced the nominations and the winner via a video conference from White House. The team of Argo - co-producers Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney - collected the trophy at the function in Los Angeles Sunday night.

Argo, set in the 1970s, talks about CIA 'exfiltration' specialist Tony Mendez (Affleck), who concocts a risky plan to free six Americans from Iran.

The Iranian news agency cited movie critics as saying that Lincoln was the best film of the year to win the Oscar.

"The Academy Awards ceremony to present the Oscar for the best picture Argo by Ben Affleck revealed that Hollywood insiders are sacrificing quality and artistic cinema to political slogans and distortions," it said.

It noted that Hollywood has been "an instrument for the US politicians to use it for their political purposes, not based on reality, but one-sided and distorted, to present to the world".

"Interestingly, in the current Academy Awards ceremony, presence of Michelle Obama was even surprising for the audience," it added.

This showed the "bare Hollywood scandals and politicization of the 85th Academy Awards ceremony".

Argo was among nine films vying in the category. The others were Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty.